Today is Saturday, June 7th, 2018. Hi, my name is Adam Burton, and you are listening to The Daily Devo, a short devotional designed to help you apply God's Word to your life. The content comes from The Gospel Project. Take a few moments and read Philemon 1, verses 8-22.
In his memoir, 28 Years a Slave, or The Story of My Life in Three Continents, Thomas L. Johnson reflected on his unexpected journey from captivity to freedom. Growing up on a Virginian plantation in the 1840s, Johnson witnessed all the horrors of American slavery—the whipping post, the cruelty of sudden executions, and the selling of families at slave markets. Johnson became a free man after the American Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln declared emancipation for all the slaves in the nation.
Johnson traveled to Colorado, where he read a pamphlet on prayer by the prominent preacher and abolitionist Charles Spurgeon. Next to the Bible, Spurgeon's words ministered to Johnson most, and the former slave wrote him a letter. Spurgeon personally financed Johnson's travel expenses, admitted him into the pastor's college, the first African-American student in his college, waived his education costs, and mentored him in the faith. The two became inseparable friends.
Spurgeon's friendship with Johnson paints in living color a three-dimensional portrait of the gospel. A gospel that, regardless of background, skin color, class, or cultural difference, unites God's family members and demonstrates the reconciling power of the cross. In his short letter to Philemon, only 25 verses long, Paul made an appeal for oneness and unity in Jesus Christ. He placed himself in the middle of the broken relationship between Philemon, a slave master, and Onesimus, a runaway slave.
Contained within his story of reconciliation and grace is the gospel itself. Think about this. Christian unity is not about sameness. It's about oneness.
Why is it important for the church to remember today? If you are in need of prayer, please get in touch with me. I would love to pray for you. You can connect with me on social media or shoot me an email at adamburton.net.
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